When King Harald of Norway first met his wife Sonja, their love story was totally ‘forbidden’ and for nearly a decade, their romance threatened to destroy the monarchy itself

King Harald of Norway has been married to his wife Queen Sonja for an impressive 57 years – but when the couple first met, their romance was completely “forbidden”.

For nine years, their relationship was a point of serious controversy, so much so that some opponents of the couple claimed it posed an existential threat to the Norwegian monarchy itself. A new series is due to be released on Amazon Prime called Harald and Sonja, depicting the ‘scorned romance’ between the now-King and Queen, both 87, that nearly brought the Norwegian monarchy to its knees.

The series will be released on Valentine’s Day – which is a fitting date for a binge-watch for any romance fans, because as time would tell, nothing would keep these two star-crossed lovers apart. Harald, then Crown Prince of Norway, was supposed to marry someone from the same kind of high rank he had been born into, but when he met ‘commoner’ Sonja by chance at a dinner party, it was nothing less than “love at first sight”.

When they met in their early twenties, the pair were dining as guests of friend Johan Stenerse’s. The encounter in 1959 set them on a path that was not going to be easy, with Harald’s father, King Olav, fiercely opposing Sonja as a suitable match for his son, who was training at the Norwegian Military Academy at the time.

Sonja and Harald first met in 1959 ( 
Image:
AFP via Getty Images)

Sonja’s father was a clothing merchant, and this was quickly deemed not to be an appropriate background for the partner of the Crown Prince – but no amount of opposition was going to put Harald off. When she met the Crown Prince, Sonja was studying English, French, and Art History at the University of Oslo, but the accomplished young woman already had a multitude of qualifications to her name, including attending a prestigious finishing school in Switzerland and a degree in dressmaking.

When King Olav found out that his son was dating Sonja, he insisted that they stop their budding romance and that Harald stop talking to Sonja altogether. However, within five years, rumours of the relationship became public, with reports appearing in the Norwegian media that they were an item.

The House of Glücksburg was so concerned about the reports that it even issued a statement saying there was no way the Crown Prince would ever marry a commoner. Over the years, the intense pressure the young couple was under due to all the opposition they faced caused them to reportedly break up several times, but they always found their way back together.

One major opponent was said to be none other than the Norwegian Prime Minister, Einar Gerhardsen, who believed Sonja’s background could even bring about a constitutional crisis of sorts.

The couple have now been married for 57 years ( 
Image:
Getty Images)
However, in 1965, Harald put his foot down, playing a hand that even King Olav couldn’t counter. He told his father that if he was not allowed to marry the woman he loved, he would refuse to marry altogether, which would mean the entire line of succession would have been put into jeopardy, and would have caused huge amounts of uncertainty to the monarchy itself.

This brave ultimatum was a key to the couple’s success – although it still took King Olav three more years to give the couple permission to marry – and Harald has reportedly said that patience was key to finally marrying the woman he loved, “We just kept waiting and hoping they’d all finally back down,” he explained to People magazine.

In 1968, the pair finally tied the knot, nearly a decade after they fell in love – and Olav had warmed up to the match so much he even walked Sonja down the aisle at the Oslo Cathedral, in front of hundreds of guests. Producers of the new drama for Prime have said the couple’s love story is like “something out of a fairy tale”.

The couple say it was ‘love at first sight’ ( 
Image:
AFP via Getty Images)“Society took time to accept the new Crown Prince and Princess, but love would win in the end,” the producers said, adding: “Harald and Sonja has all the ingredients to become a major international viewer favorite for anyone who likes unique and genuine love stories”.

The new show follows in the footsteps of The Crown, which followed a dramatised version of the House of Windsor across decades and was a major hit for streaming giant Netflix.

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